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UKCSC Annual General Meeting 2016

Last Sunday was the UKCSC first AGM held in Leicester.

This was a chance for cannabis social clubs to come together for the first event of its kind held in the UK, showing just how far we are progressing with our idea of a legitimate cannabis social clubs movement.

The talks were mainly focused on the efforts of cannabis social clubs, laws surrounding cannabis and the future of the cannabis scene here in the UK.

With speakers including Niamh Eastwood, executive director at Release to the Prince of Pot Marc Emery, there was a lot of great insight about cannabis laws and experiences with police throughout the day at the UKCSC first AGM.

Marc Emery, Prince of Pot

Michel Degens, President of Mambo Social Club, Belgium

Niamh Eastwood, Executive Director of Release

Stuart Harper, UKCSC

I spent a while chatting with Marc Emery about Canada and the cannabis situation over there. With a thriving medical and illegal market they are due to legalise recreational cannabis in their own way in April 2017.

Interestingly, Marc did have initial trouble when he opened his Cannabis Culture shop, but the amount he’s now earning through sales has enabled him to overcome issues with landlords coming up against pressure from authorities about letting their building to a cannabis shop.

Marc Emery and Tyler Green

As a landlord in the UK, did you know there is currently no law against people vaping cannabis (e.g. dabbing) on your premises? I certainly didn’t, until I watched Stuart Harper’s talk on cannabis, the law and politics yesterday, which was incredibly insightful, and just one of the reasons I was glad we attended the UKCSC First AGM.

Cannabis Social Clubs

Cannabis clubs such as Brighton Cannabis Club, Bristol Cannabis Club, Cardiff Cannabis Social Club and Teeside Cannabis Club all gave great talks about their respective clubs including challenges faced, events and plans for the future.

Rob from Brighton Cannabis club spoke about thier history from inception today, where they regularly draw a crowd of hundreds to their public events.

Bristol Cannabis Club and Teeside Cannabis club both spoke about challenged faced with the media/police, and Cardiff cannabis club took to the stage to discuss their aims for next year and beyond.

Teeside Cannabis Club

Cardiff Cannabis Club

Bristol Cannabis Club

Brighton Cannabis Club

UKCSC

The United Kingdom Cannabis Social Clubs movement is focused on three areas of activism for cannabis social clubs which were focused on at the UKCSC First AGM:

Greg de Hoedt speaking at the UKCSC AGM

1. Social Progress

Not just asking for change, making it happen. Coming together as a community to focus on common interest in cannabis and stand up to prohibition. Working together to plan activities and organising protests / getting media coverage to deliver cannabis awareness to the mainstream

Audience at the UKCSC AGM

2. Community Outreach

Reaching the wider cannabis community outside of immediate network. We are the innovators / early adopters. Looked at as first point if contact by society when people want to find out more about cannabis

Rolling a joint

3. Public & Political Engagement

Presenting a good public image to the press. Putting pressure on MPs to take note of changes around the world – make them do their jobs!

Mike Barnes featured in a BBC video shown by Teeside Cannabis Club

UKCSC Tagged Plant Collective Model

Another thing which cropped up was the UKCSC’s 9-plant collective tagged plant model, which is a project they have recently launched. They are offering tags for cannabis gardens of up to 9 plants that are not being grown for profit or dealing.

This comes with a legal backup for the grower, who if caught by police will have the weight of the UKCSC legal team behind them both trying to get you the lowest sentence possible and also fighting the unjust laws one case at a time. If you want more details on this, email [email protected] with the subject “Tagged Plant Collective”

Stardawg

Overall, I had a great time networking with new people and catching up with those in the industry I have previously had the pleasure of meeting at the UKCSC first AGM

It was a great day (and evening) for all involved, with a smooth-running event that hopefully inspired a lot of cannabis social clubs with ideas for the future in a market where cannabis is becoming more acceptable every day.

People I caught up with included (but not limited to – sorry if I missed you off this list, people kept giving me dabs!):

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